Re: Site Re-design

Chris:

Simple questions are always the hardest to answer. Here are a few random
thoughts(?).

If FrontPage won't handle your problem, then yes--you are probably going to
have to do some "hand work". I have to agree that FrontPage may not be the
best for "automatically" re-lining  ASP pages. But resetting links (when
using a FrontPage structure), is simple drag and drop. And all the links
change for you.

I find myself a little confused here. Exactly WHAT is on these pages that
needs to be changed. Are you saying that each file has raw text "links"?? If
true, that would indeed, be a bit of a problem. It would be a shame the
links were not called from a database. In which case, one could simply
change the data in that cell to affect all the pages; much as you would with
an Include file.

However, even if you have to open each file and do a search and replace,
FrontPage 2000 would still be an excellent choice. Its ability to search and
replace in the HTML view is really handy.

Another choice might be Word 2000. It will load and save your ASP files, do
search and replace, and allow several copies to be open at the same time for
drag and drop or copy and paste.

And of course, there are any number of shareware "editors" that include
search and replace to a limited degree--though most won't have Word's multi
copy and macro abilities.

Look on your machine. You may already have a word processor that will do the
job. And if you are worried--as some seem to always be--whether the program
will save the file correctly??
Then--just cut and paste the file after it has been manipulated, (but NOT
saved), into whatever program you use for ASP and save it there.

Of course, the best bet is a good long re-think. Get a big yellow legal pad
out and do some sketching. Maybe you can figure ways to cut down on the
total number of links that must be changed. You may be able to set up "new"
links, Table of contents, etc. without actually moving the existing links.
As long as the site structure will make sense to the viewer, who cares where
the actual file is?

Remember--unless one is physically placing the ASP files in a new
directory--for search purposes perhaps--the physical location of all these
files is unimportant. It is only a big deal if the data IN the files is
wrong. And it will only be "wrong" if you say it is wrong.

So--if there are "raw links" in those files, I would suggest you take this
opportunity to switch them over to a database of some type. Another way to
do this, is Frames. You limit all "links" to the main frame. And though I
admit, most--including myself--are not too keen on Frames, this is one area
where they do come in handy.

Also check to see if many of these links are relative. If so, they can be
placed in a new sub directory and still be relative to each other. Only
those links showing the "wrong" path need be changed.

Perhaps, if you were to elaborate a bit on your problem, this group should
be able to come up with some better ideas ...

Best wishes
Ted Temer
Temercraft Designs Redding, CA
temer(at)c-zone.net
www.temercraft.com/novels/
www.newsredding.com/
www.ramac-rc.org/


> Good morning!
>
> I am working on a major site re-design which includes a major (and much
> needed) revision to the directory structure. Can anyone recommend an
> application that will automatically change the links in all of the .asp
> files as they are moved around? (FrontPage is out of the question ...) Or
> will I have to comb through these 1500 .asp files and manually change
them?
> If anyone has the answer, I know you guys will ...
>
> TIA
>
> Chris M. Kasper
> Associate Web Engineer
> The SoftAd Group, Inc.
> ckasper(at)softad.com
> chris_kasper(at)hotmail.com
>
> "Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time."  - Steven Wright
>

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